Thirty years ago a bunch of musicians, who called themselves Rock Machine, gathered in a studio near Bazaar Gate in Fort to record their debut album, titled Rock ‘N’ Roll Renegade, on tape. The band was paid Rs 30,000 for their work. In the coming weeks, Rock Machine — now called Indus Creed — will release a limited edition vinyl print to celebrate the album’s 30th anniversary. The vinyl print will cost Rs 4,000. “Even I can’t afford it,” says Uday Benegal, the lead vocalist of Rock Machine.

Rock ‘N’ Roll Renegade signalled a tectonic shift for the Indian rock music scene. Some of the most popular bands that were formed later, including Parikrama, Agnee and Zero, were all influenced by the sound and spectacle that Rock Machine crafted. “Our first original, Xerox, which I wrote, was clearly inspired by Top of The Rock. I think these guys were the Papas who taught us all,” says keyboard player Subir Malik, who is a founding member of Delhi rock band Parikrama. Blues guitarist Warren Mendonsa, the founder of Mumbai band Blackstratblues, remembers watching Indus Creed perform at Rang Bhavan when he was 11. “Many years later, I heard the album Rock N Roll Renegade. It was a really cool snapshot of what they were — the biggest band of their time,” says Mendonsa.

Rock Machine did not just embolden other bands to play originals, but it can also take credit for bringing an entire new generation of musicians into being.

“Indus Creed was senior to us by almost a decade. When I saw them perform, I felt I wanted to do this someday — make music and be up there on stage. They were ambitious enough to gun for the big deal — tour abroad, change their name...they were paving the way for other rock bands in the country,” says Kaustubh Dhavale (Koco), the lead guitarist and composer for Pune/Mumbai rock band, Agnee.

“This was the pre-internet era, so we would lie to the audience and announce an Aerosmith song and play Top of The Rock,” says Benegal. The band’s biggest triumph was when the crowd started singing along to Top of The Rock and began requesting some of their songs. “It was unheard of for an Indian band and we knew we wanted to record more albums,” says Benegal. “It was just right for the time that we made it,” says the band’s lead guitarist Mahesh Tinaikar, “I don’t think any of us want to go back and change anything about that album.”

The band had been around for four years when the album released. “Nobody took things that seriously,” says the band’s former bassist, Mark Selwyn. The group went into the studio in order to have an album to promote on their first international shows in Russia (then the USSR). The gig came their way because then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had directed the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) to set an image makeover in motion. “He wanted to project India as a modern nation and it was at his behest that ICCR sent rock and jazz bands to perform in Moscow,” Benegal says. Rock Machine had been recruited by vocalist Gary Lawyer to perform as his backing band at the Festival of India in Moscow in 1988. “Of course, this was on condition that we could also do our own set,” Benegal says.

The show was the “galvanising force that made the band record the entire debut album in three months”, as Selwyn remembers it. The songs that stood the test of time were the ones that were the easiest to write, says Tinaikar. For instance, the title track Rock ‘n’ Roll Renegade was written by the guitarist and Benegal in three days. It captured the psychedelic incandescence of Pink Floyd and the booming drum rolls recall the stickwork of Deep Purple’s Ian Paice. Top of The Rock and Rock ‘N’ Roll Renegade remain part of Indus Creed’s set list to this day.

“It was a kind of a rebellion,” says Benegal, referring to the statement that the band wanted to make with Rock ‘N’ Roll Renegade. “It was about being an outcast, considering that Indian society did not believe a musician could make a living off of rock music.”

When they were on stage, they not only wanted to sound like a rock band, but look like one too. The inspiration came when they opened for Swedish rock band Europe, who performed in India in December 1988. “There was no mistaking who the band members were when we saw these tall men with long blonde hair. They made a strong impression and we realised that we can’t go up on stage in our torn jeans and chappals,” says the band’s keyboard player Zubin Balaporia.

By the time MTV India launched in 1996, they already had a video shot by ad filmmaker Mahesh Mathai that captured their dirty, glam-rock image. “Mahesh made the video on a shoestring budget,” says Selwyn, “We had hired Rang Bhavan for four or five hours and he shot it like a live video.” But getting the video to the channel was a challenge. “Our drummer MM (Mark Menezes), used to keep making trips to Hong Kong to meet his girlfriend. We gave him the video on a VHS and asked him to drop it off at the MTV headquarters in Hong Kong, but MM was such a chilled out and shy guy that he didn’t do anything about it.”

One afternoon, Selwyn was tuned into MTV India. “On came Danny McGill,” says Selwyn, referring to one of the most popular VJs of the channel at the time, “He said, ‘If anyone knows this band Rock Machine or if the band is watching us, please get in touch with us’.” The band sent their video to the channel. “MTV India made such a big noise about it. They played the video five to six times a day for the next six months.”